He was not born blind, he remembered colors, he could still recall the face of his high school best friend, Bryan, he still could pull the image of his sister in her prom dress to the front of his mind. Yet, here he was lying on his back with only blackness replacing the place in his mind where vision should have been. He knew his eyes were open or closed because he was acutely aware of the position of his eyelids. Something he never thought he would have to actually pay attention to outside of having to sleep. He shook his head in annoyance feeling for the remote the nurse had told him was nearby. Feeling the plastic device, he hit the large button in its center and waited impatiently.

A few agonizing minutes later he heard someone enter the room, at least he assumed it was his room, freezing as fear overcame him the man spoke with a fear in his voice he was not used to. “Hello, is someone there? Are you in my room?”

“Yes Mr. McCoy, I am right here.” He felt a light touch on his arm as the woman answered him, yet his anxiety stuck around until she ran her hand up his arm in a comforting way and he took another breath. “What can I help you with?”

“Can you turn down the television in my room? My sister must have left it when she left to get us lunch.” Hesitating for a moment the woman turned back to him though he saw none of it.

“Mr. McCoy, your television isn’t on.”

“Are you sure? I hear it, it’s a rerun of Sunday’s Gotham Knights game.” His anxiety left him for confusion as the sounds he heard were clearly in the room.

“Mason, your television is off, I can check and see who has the game on though and see if they will turn it down.” The woman walked around his bed keeping a hand in contact with him by dragging it lightly around his bed as he heard another person enter his room.

“Mason, its Sara, are you doing okay?” He turned his head toward her and the sound of the game faded into the background for a moment while she spoke before coming back to the foreground after she finished her statement.

“Besides being blind? Yes, I’m doing great. I hear the Gotham Knights game on though and she is telling me my television is off.”

“It is off, what do you mean you hear a Gotham Knights game? The only game I saw on was the one in the lobby, ten floors down. There’s no way that you hear that.” Laughing lightly as she finished the sentence Mason’s sister pulled food out of the bag and the different smells overwhelmed his senses making his eyes water. He recognized the smells but they were stronger than he remembered them being and held his nose shut.

“Mason, are you okay?” The nurses voice filled with concern and she touched his arm again as she spoke to him.

“Yeah, the smell is just super strong.” Mason shook his head and then felt for the sandwich his sister placed on the tray in front of him.

“That can happen when you first have a tragic incident that affects the senses, sometimes the other senses ramp up in sensitivity to compensate and help for a short while.”

“Okay,” he said nodding as he attempted to grip his sandwich that he could not see. After a few tries he was able to grip the ham and Swiss sandwich and get it to his mouth.

“Hey sis,” he stated, “are you sure that game isn’t at least being played in one of the rooms next door?”

“Yes,’ she replied, ‘I only saw it in the lobby of the hospital.”

“Well, the Knights just scored and one of the guys watching it swore….I’m not sure what is going on but I can hear things like a damned dog at the moment.”

He was trying to sleep, he could feel the coarseness of the sheets and the grating it was causing on his skin was making it difficult to sleep. Pushing the covering off of him he rolled on to his side and tried to focus on the silence around him and instead heard the nurses talking in his room. Sitting him rapidly he startled his sister awake and she was at his side quickly. “Mason, what is it?”

“Can you two please keep it down? Do you not realize that we are trying to sleep?”

Looking about the room Sara tilted her head for a moment and replied to his question. “Mason, no one is in the room. No nurses are in the room. What are you talking about?”

“I hear them, they are talking about treatment for the patient in room 218. How can you say they aren’t in the room? I hear them, they are right next to the bed.” Sara stood and walked toward the doorway looking both directions and she saw two nurses, at the other end of the hall. Walking slowly down the hall she overheard their conversation enough to confirm they were talking about what Mason had mentioned and then returned to his room.

“Mason, those nurses are down the hallway. It must be the after effects of your senses being sensitive from the accident. Put your earbuds in and listen to some music and try to sleep.” Letting out a frustrated sign Mason put his earphones in and at first he could not hear the music and after feeling for the volume button gave it one click and it sounded as if the music was going to explode his ear drums. Pulling the earphones out he shook his head and felt Sara sit on the bed with him.

“Music is too loud, even at one. I don’t know what to do sis…they can’t give me anything to help with my sensitivity?”

Shaking her head more to herself than anyone else Sara touched Mason’s hand. “Not yet, they don’t want to confuse your mind. When everything gets back into balance they are going to try and give you some medicine to help you cope with the anxiety that comes from not seeing.”

“Sis,’ Mason said a bit of desperation in his voice, ‘my senses come and go in intensity as I focus on them unless I completely ignore them then they get out of control. I can hear your heart if I focus on it, I can smell my nurses perfume from the moment her elevator ride hits the second floor…I’m not sure this is my senses being out of control sis.”

Patting his leg Sara stood and made her way back to her bed. “Mason, nothing else makes sense. Concentrate on turning everything off if you think you can control it and see what happens. Just don’t turn off your ability to feel touch cause otherwise we’ll never wake you up.”

Laughing to herself Sara shook her head knowing full well he was simply overwhelmed. “Also, your nurses name is Cadie and she only started wearing that perfume two days ago, for you, because you said you couldn’t tell when she was in the room or not. That’s what she told you at least, I think she’s sweet on you.”

“So you say, sis. She could be wearing it for someone else.” Mason pulled his sheets back over his body wincing as he did so.

“Hey, I’m the one who gets to see her face when she looks at you, remember? Now get some sleep, tomorrow they’ve got some psychologist coming in who is apparently pretty high priced to help you get your bearings a bit better.”

Mason lay focusing hard, hard enough that his brain hurt if that were possible. It had been two days since Dr. Solomon had visited with the man named Reed. While he knew very little about Reed the man had known quite a bit about what Mason was experiencing. Enhanced sense were the cause for Mason’s issues, though they lasted far longer than any residual compensation his body was supposed to have. He felt, tasted, smelled, and heard at a level not normal for anyone, save one person ever, and that was Matthew Murdock. How Reed knew how to administer the tests he had not gotten the chance to ask but he was determined to achieve the goals set by Dr. Solomon.

Letting out a breath, Mason closed in his ‘circle’ to reduce the amount of noises he heard. His goal was to be able to only hear things on the floor he was admitted to. They said it would take him at least a week to accomplish this goal, he was aiming for anything under that. Cadie came in the room tapping the door’s metal frame to let him know she was coming in. She had food with her, a sandwich of ham and some kind of cheese, an apple, and raw carrots. His smell had been easy to tune in on, because it was a direct sort of sense. Hearing though took time, it took in everything involuntarily. Setting the tray down Cadie checked his vitals and then touched him to let him know what side she was on. “Do you need anything Mason?”

“No ma’am,’ he said grimacing as he pushed himself into a better eating position.

“What’s the grimace for?” She asked with a touch more concern than usual.

“Just tired of being in the bed, body is sore. Could use to get up and walk. I’m kinda over the whole bed rest thing. I am used to working, being active and what not.”

“Ah,’ she said, “I’ll talk to the doc and see what he says but I make no promises. I’ll be right back to help you with lunch.”

As she left the room Mason let out a breath. It was the one disadvantage to being blind outside of actually seeing he had noticed. She might be pretty, she might not, his sister said she was cute, athletic, dirty blonde. The list went on, he’d been single for going on three years and his nurse of all people after a horrific accident that made him go blind was the first woman he wanted to look at in that way and couldn’t. The irony was not lost on him. Touching the bed table in front of him he slowly moved his hand towards the plate and felt the carrots moving one slowly to his mouth, or what he thought was his mouth but ended up being his upper lip.

Letting out a sigh he clenched his teeth burying the frustration of not being able to eat without help and focused on what Dr. Solomon had said, each day his sense would improve and he would eventually end up being ‘normal’ just without eye sight. His consultant Reed said he would actually end up even better than that. Time would tell. Cadie entered the room and sat in her usual spot on the edge of the bed to his right. “Alright, you want me to feed ya or are you gonna try it on your own today.”

“Just give me a bit of assistance, no touching but just kinda let me know if I’m hot or cold.” He frowned at the fact he was going to have to play a three year olds game to eat but it was better than having her feed him again.

“Alright,’ she said obviously smiling at the fact this was going to be a lot of humor for her at his expense.